You have until July 31st to complete our first exercise in Guerilla Evangelism which is to create an evangelism tract to welcome any and all to the Episcopal Church—or whichever church you happen to belong to. Put it up on your site and I’ll link to it or send it on to me and I’ll stick it up here.

Given the Episcopal Church’s poor track record on evangelism – the way in which many of us tend to recoil at the very word, the negative associations and stereotypes (and anxieties) it raises, and, quite frankly, an attitude among some Episcopalians that we don’t have to “make disciples” of others because that’s intolerant and presumes that such persons aren’t already loved by God just as they are – we really can use leadership by example at the top.

True, we cannot expect the PB and the folks at 815 or even our diocesan bishops to do this work for us. But gutting evangelism from the budget sends a powerfully negative message about values and priorities that, unfortunately, dovetails all too nicely with our fears, anxieties, and misunderstandings about what evangelism really is, what it means to do it, and just how central it is to the reason why the Church exists in the first place.

I wonder if part of our attitude towards evangelism is a holdover from our time as a branch of the CofE? Evangelism doesn’t seem to have been a strong suit there, either – it was the national Church – you went to it, period, unless you were a Dissenter or RC. Some groups (the Wesleys and their followers, the Anglo Catholic slum priests) did outstanding work, but the institutional Church less so.

BillyD – no, I think our aversion to “evangelism” is a very understandable recoil from “evangelism” as it is typically practiced in the US – hucksterism, emotional manipulation/blackmail, predatory targeting of vulnerable youth, addicts, the unemployed and disposessed, the stroking of self-righeousness and demonization of the “other” from whom one must be saved…

All the things which make the deliberately unchurched the fastest-growing religious grouping in this, and indeed every developed, country are associated in the American mind with the putatively benign word “evangelism.”

We weren’t baptized to sell Jesusburgers, nor were we told to go and make everybody toe our line; we were baptized to tell the Good News, and to make disciples for Christ. They’re different things.

Follow me on Twitter

Amazon Links

When I make book recommendations or link to books on Amazon, please know that these are affiliate links. This means that I get a couple of cents if you click on these, and a couple of additional cents if you buy the book or other item linked to. It’s hardly an income stream, but every little bit helps, and I appreciate the support!

In a Nutshell

St. Bede Productions is an exploration of Christian liturgical spirituality with an emphasis on early medieval, Benedictine, Sarum, Anglican, and Episcopal perspectives. Daily Office, Episcopal Morning and Evening Prayer, the St. Bede’s Breviary—all that stuff! A church open to the future must be grounded in how the Spirit has moved in the past.